Season's first tournament kicks off exciting season
By Adam Wallace, PGA TOUR Staff
The PGA TOUR-owned and operated Nationwide Tour begins its 19th season on Thursday at the Panama Movistar Championship at Panama Golf Club in Panama City, Panama.
The 30-event 2008 schedule features a record of nearly $19 million in prize money and, for the first time, two events with $1-million purses -- the Nationwide Tour Players Cup in West Virginia and the Nationwide Tour Championship at TPC Craig Ranch in Texas. The average purse in 2008 is also a record $631,000.
The Tour welcomes hockey legend Wayne Gretzky as tournament host of a new event in Ontario, Canada, the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic.
The Tour will travel to 22 states in the U.S. and five countries outside its borders -- Panama, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and Canada -- with 16 events airing on GOLF CHANNEL. The membership of the Nationwide Tour continues to grow globally with 61 international players, the most ever, representing 18 countries, competing in the season-long quest to earn one of the 25 PGA TOUR cards available for 2009.
The Nationwide Tour enters the 2008 season with a new advertising campaign and new tagline, "PGA TOUR Driven". The Tour continues to have significant and growing impact on the PGA TOUR. In 2008, the Nationwide Tour alumni membership on the PGA TOUR reaches a record 67 percent.
Panama Golf Club, with a rich golf history of hosting tour players, is one of the most difficult courses on the Nationwide Tour. It plays host to the Tour for the fifth consecutive year. The par-70 layout was the fourth toughest course among the 34 on last year's schedule.
Four World Golf Hall of Fame members have earned victories at Panama Golf Club dating back to the "winter tour" days of the 1950s -- Roberto De Vicenzo (five wins), Sam Snead (1954), Arnold Palmer (1954) and Curtis Strange (1981). Other prominent champions such as Julius Boros, Doug Ford and Doug Sanders joined them in the Panama winner's circle.
This week's field features 132 players including defending champion Miguel Carballo. Carballo, a 27 year-old native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, became the first golfer from his country to win on the Nationwide Tour when he chased down third-round leader Marc Turnesa with a five-under-par 65 in the final round. Carballo, who finished 30th on the 2007 money list, joined Paraguay's Angel Franco as the only South American-born winners in Nationwide Tour history.
A group of well-known 22- to 24-year-olds makes its 2008 debut this week, including the first amateur to win a Nationwide Tour event (last summer's Nationwide Children's Invitational), Daniel Summerhays (24), former University of Florida standout Matt Every (24), U.S. Amateur champions Casey Wittenberg (23) and Colt Knost (22), and former UNLV All-American Spencer Levin (23).
Next week the Nationwide Tour heads to Morelia, Mexico for the 50th Mexico Open presented by Corona, a new event on the Nationwide Tour schedule.
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